The mum of a young woman who died in custody has launched a blistering attack on prosecutors and prison officials for “lies, insults and disdain” spanning five years.
A joint fatal accident inquiry was announced last week into the deaths of Katie Allan and teenager William Lindsay, who both took their lives at Polmont Young Offenders Institution. Katie, who was 21, and William, 16, died in separate incidents within months of each other in 2018.
But Katie’s mum, Linda, has questioned why there have been no criminal prosecutions despite evidence of shocking neglect and care failures. She told the Sunday Mail: “In a strange way I am grateful to the Crown Office for the five years we have had to research and to understand what happened to Katie.
“What is so difficult to accept is the knowledge that one day we will have to relive the horror of Katie’s last weeks, in a court, and to accept the amount of additional trauma that has been piled on us for so long.”
Last year the Crown Office said there was enough evidence to prosecute Polmont over the death but the SPS is immune from prosecution. Linda went on: “From the day of Katie’s death, when we were left with no support, to last year, being told that the Crown Office could not prosecute the Scottish Prison Service because of Crown immunity, the trauma has been relentless.”
She added: “The insensitivity of the Crown Office has left me breathless, every single time. At our first meeting when we were told there was no evidence for a criminal prosecution, no one listened to all we had discovered.
“Then last year we were told there was evidence for a criminal prosecution but due to crown immunity no prosecution would take place, that the Scottish Prison Service materially contributed to our daughter’s death but no action would be taken.
“I am not really sure if we will ever be able to accept this. The political soundbites, the Scottish Prison Service lies, the disdain and insults. Almost weekly hearing ‘every death in custody is a tragedy’ or ‘significant improvements have been made’, so many lies.”
Katie took her life in June 2018 while serving a sentence for a hit-and-run crash while drunk. After the Sunday Mail highlighted a series of deaths in Scotland’s prisons, a Scottish Government review, into how deaths in jail are handled, was launched.
Linda, who lives in Glasgow with husband Stuart, added: “The death of our daughter Katie was not normal or anticipated and I am not sure we will ever truly accept she is gone.
We have had five years to fully inhabit our grief, learning to live life without Katie’s presence, without hearing her laughter or seeing her smile.
“We think of Katie and what she might have been doing if she had lived, now a 26-year-old woman. Where would she be living? Would she have graduated? What would her work be? Would she be a mum? Or travelled? What would she think of the changes in our lives?”
An SPS spokesman said: “The welfare and safety of those in our care is a priority for the SPS. HM Chief Inspector of Prisons wrote there had been ‘considerable strides made in healthcare’ for young people at HMP & YOI Polmont, following an independent review in 2019.”
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - sign up to our daily newsletter here.
